Picking up students
An approachable, passionate teacher loves helping her students. One student in particular seems to have developed a close, professional relationship with her. One day, she sees the student walking down the street just before the sun sets as it begins to get dark. Based on the student's address in the school's database, she realizes that the student is far from their home address. What should the teacher do? Should the teacher give the student a ride?

Unfortunately, in today's world, teachers take a huge risk in giving students a ride. Consequences could be devastating if there was an accident or if the student made a false claim of something inappropriate happening. The teacher could stop and see if the student needed to use his/her phone to call his/her parents and then wait with the student outside the car waiting for the parent to arrive.

You should first contact the parents to ask them for permission to take their child home. It might also be that they are going to a friend's house and are not too far. If so than you should contact that contact the friend's parents and see if they could come and pick the child up while you wait with your student.

The teacher should contact the school if this occurs within school hours. If the teacher knows the address based on a school database, then she should also have access to other information. It would be better to make contact with the parents on the phone to talk through possibilities or get a verbal permission before putting a student in the car.

I am a college student working to achieve my Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education. My supervisor at internship explicitly said that we should never pick up or drop off students. Even if you are trying to help the student, this act of kindness could easily be misconstrued; In this case, it is better to be safe than sorry. If the student has to walk a far distance to school every day, it might be something to talk about with the administration. You might be able to set up a car pool or help the student in another way.

I think if I were in this situation, I would greet the student and start up a conversation that would bring about an answer as to whether they are in need of a ride or not. They might be out with friends or family or work. The age/grade of the student isn't given, so it's hard to assume whether the student is of an age where it's normal to see them walking around alone. But, after determining the situation by greeting the student, if they really were in need of a ride, I would have them call their parents. I would then either confirm with their parents whether they would like me to escort their child home or to maybe wait with their child until their parent or someone is able to come and pick them up.

Its is unfortunate that teachers are put in a position to have to debate on whether or not to allow students into their vehicles, especially when trying to help students in need. I would have given the student a ride home and then gone in to speak with parents about helping the student out with rides of or needs, if the teacher is willing. If you were very concerned with giving the student a ride you could call them a taxi and pay the fee.

The teacher does need to let the attendance clerk or proper administrative person know of this address because it may cause a hardship for the child to get to school. Also, she should give the child a ride home, as long as, she has made contact with the parent first to alert them of her bringing the student home.